Page 26 of Ties of Shadow

The aftermath of the battle was chaotic. One raccoon washed what must have been a spyring leg in a pool before happily crunching through it, and the other animals sat back on their haunches, cleaning themselves. The bats swirled around the ceiling while others hung from it, waving their wings with self-satisfied grins.

“Is it safe yet?”the small skunk in my hands asked.

“Yes,” the Shade and I said at once. He smirked as he glanced at me.

“So I can go home now?”Jarlz asked.

I pursed my lips. “Should I…get a basket and gather his family?” I scratched the little one’s chin. Worry made my voice wobble. “I didn’t see them as I ran.”

The Shade pulled his hand from my back, leaving the place cold, and tightened his cravat as he addressed the animals. “Clear the room of this filth.” They all swung into motion, pulling the remains down the hall and through another door.“Then go back to sleep.”My brows furrowed, and I took another step away. The Shade didn’t speak that last bit aloud.

He inhaled slowly, then swept past me into the greenhouse. He paused for only a moment before his shadows took off around the room, righting pots, sweeping the steaming slop from the spiders, placing it in a large glass container, and moving the bodies toward the door.

“The mushrooms were a good thought.” His voice startled me, as quiet as it was.

I pulled the end of my hair forward and tugged it. “It was the only thing I thought might work at the time. It just didn’t work as fast as I’d hoped.”

“We use the same component in the potions the bats used, just dried and reconstituted with brynlan paste.”

My mouth formed anO. “Clever. The acid would help it penetrate more quickly.”

“And through shells and exoskeletons and armor.”

Curiosity bloomed in my chest. “Why did the spyrings attack you? Aren’t they yours?” We moved up the stairs, his shadows a constant moving force. One pressed against my middle, guiding me to the side as another shadow righted an overturned potted tree and moved it back into place. Then the shadow arm repositioned me so we could climb the final stairs.

“The manor is plagued here and there by various beasts,” the Shade said finally. “More come with each moon-cycle. These slipped through. But the spyrings are not mine. They are usually independent and don’t work well with other creatures.” He studied the mess of racerbristles. “I’ve never seen them coordinated before.”

Did that mean he had tried to befriend them? A frisson of fear raced through me, and I shuddered at the thought of breakfast with a spyring. The wolves were enough for me.

Glancing around the room of the beautiful racerbristles, I worried my lip. “I’m so sorry,” I started. “I can fix this and pick it up.”

The Shade’s eyebrow tucked up into the hair that had fallen forward. Without breaking eye contact, his shadows swept the room and put it to rights. One even dragged a new pot over and swept the dirt back around the bush.

I cleared my throat. “Okay, well then, I will just…return the boy.” I ducked around the Shade and his overwhelming presence and went to the table. “Mama Skunk?”

“Mama Mae? You can come out now,” the Shade called as well.

A bush shook, and the mother skunk rushed forward. “Dark One! Have you seen my—”Her voice cut off in a high-pitched, worried squeak.

The young kit in my arms started writhing, and I set him down quickly before I dropped him. “Mama!”

The two reunited with more purring and chattering until the two other babies also arrived, their questions almost indecipherable.“Where did you go?” “Did you die?” “What were you thinking?” “Hide–Spray–Live, as I’ve always told you.”

I smiled. A flush of relief flooded me, followed by a feeling of warm contentment. I was wrapped in his piney scent as he stepped up behind me.

“Let’s see to this weakness of my defenses, Dayspring. Where did you first see the creatures?”

All warmth fled as I strode with false bravado to where I’d first seen the spyrings. The shadows shifted the plants, the table, and finally the fern tree aside, revealing the cavern entrance. On the distant wall of the tunnel, eggs and spiderwebs clung to the opening of a hole in the room. Dust and rocks filled the floor.

“I see.” He took a cloth from his pocket, wrapping it around a stone and igniting it with a match. Then he threw the whole lot down the sloping tunnel, surrounded by waves of shadow. The light diminished as the distance grew…and grew. The tunnel was enormous. The Shade’s frown deepened. He brought a hand forward and swept the eggs and rocks that had fallen into the room back into the tunnel. With a slash of his palm before him, the shadows formed a grate-like barrier at the entrance.

“This will be annoying to clear.”

“You think there are more down there?”

He turned, his shoulders low. “There are always more.” He strode past the skunk family and gestured for me to follow. “Come, let’s rest. It’s been quite a day.”

Chapter fourteen

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